The next morning at ten o'clock, inside an office building in Magic City.
Chen Xu had just signed the lease with the agent and landlord. He was now sitting on the sofa with Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue, chatting.
"Chen Xu, this office must cost quite a bit in rent every month, right?" Yang Xin casually asked as she looked around at the layout.
"Yeah, I signed for three months for now. The rent is manageable, but the bigger expenses are the game development machines and other office equipment."
The rent was five yuan per square meter per day. He had rented two open-plan units, totaling 160 square meters.
The rent alone came to 24,000 yuan a month, with property management fees of twenty yuan per square meter per month charged separately.
Of course, in a smaller city, it might have cost only a tenth of that.
But that clearly was not realistic. The gap in talent between small cities and major cities was simply too large.
"That's easy. My company just shut down too, so all kinds of development machines and such are no longer useful to me. They're all ready-made. Chen Xu, just give me a little for them when the time comes." Yang Xin generously offered.
"But putting that aside, are the only main developers in our company the two of us?" Yang Xin asked Chen Xu.
At the moment, including himself, the company had four employees in total.
Yang Xin and he were responsible for game development, while the other two had been employees at Yang Xin's former company.
One handled finance and administration.
The other was responsible for Macro Play.
After testing their work abilities, Chen Xu had hired them both as well.
"Yeah, for now it really is just the two of us. What the core team is lacking is a lead artist!" Chen Xu sighed, then glanced at Ruan Ningxue, who was holding an ice cream beside him.
In Chen Xu's plan, aside from himself, he needed someone with considerable artistic skill.
And Ruan Ningxue was his target.
As for having only three people on the team, Chen Xu was not worried about that.
After all, the game development industry in this world was different from his previous life. In Chen Xu's current plans, a three-person core development team was enough.
He could handle the numerical design, level design, and core design himself.
Most of the remaining work, such as art asset production and modeling, could be handed over to outsourcing teams.
After all, none of that was especially technical work. It simply required a great deal of time.
Although outsourcing those aspects would certainly cost more, compared to time, Chen Xu would rather invest money than time.
All that remained was whether he could "talk" Ruan Ningxue into joining the team.
After seeing Ruan Ningxue's artistic skills during the development of "Magic Mirror," Chen Xu had set his sights on her.
"That's right, Ningxue, join us... Oh, right, CEO Chen, what is our company called?" Yang Xin suddenly asked.
"Nebula Games," Chen Xu replied somewhat helplessly.
"Actually, Senior, I don't think comics and games are all that different. They're both meant to present the stories in our hearts to readers and players." Chen Xu looked earnestly at Ruan Ningxue. "And Nebula Games will also have comic-related business in the future. We'll release corresponding comic volumes for certain games. If you're interested, Senior, you can absolutely continue working in that area."
Games adapted into comics, or comics adapted into games, were perfectly normal practices.
And unlike the manga-adapted games of his previous life, which were basically made to fleece fans, Chen Xu had learned that while most game design concepts in Parallel World lagged behind his previous life, manga-adapted games were uniquely thriving.
Hearing Chen Xu's words, Ruan Ningxue looked tempted. Then, as though she had made up her mind, she nodded. "Then I'll have to call you CEO Chen from now on, Junior!"
"It's just a form of address. Call me whatever feels natural, Senior." Chen Xu smiled when he saw Ruan Ningxue join.
"Xiaoxue, how did you agree so readily? I used to make the same kind of grand promises to you!" Yang Xin looked speechless.
Although she was also quite happy that Ruan Ningxue had joined, she had tried to persuade her countless times before without success. So why did it work when it was Chen Xu?
"Xin Jie, yours were nothing but empty promises. If you had even succeeded with one game, I wouldn't have dismissed it without a second thought." Ruan Ningxue looked equally speechless.
Chen Xu at least had "Magic Mirror" as a guarantee, and he had a clear direction for the company's development. As for you, the more games you made, the smaller your company became, and the fewer people you had.
"Alright, to celebrate Senior joining us, let me go over some of the arrangements for what comes next." Chen Xu looked at the two of them.
Hearing Chen Xu's words, Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue both looked serious and expectant, even though they had only just joined and did not even have office equipment yet.
After all, they had not joined Chen Xu's company to coast along. They wanted to achieve something too.
"Next, we're going to develop a new game—a Meta Game-type game," Chen Xu said.
Yang Xin and Ruan Ningxue looked puzzled.
Meta Game? A Meta Game?
"A Meta Game? We're not continuing to develop 18R games?" Ruan Ningxue asked in surprise.
"Of course not. 18R games are only our starting capital." Chen Xu shook his head.
He had no intention of building an I Company in Parallel World.
"But CEO Chen, what kind of game is a Meta Game?" Yang Xin was a little confused. She had developed three games and even earned the title of game designer.
Yet she had never even heard of this so-called Meta Game.
Ruan Ningxue beside her was even less familiar with it.
"Simply put, a Meta Game is when a game contains elements that transcend the game itself, creating direct interaction between the game and the player."
"Have you read 'Don Quixote'? In that novel, the author occasionally steps into the story himself and comments on the plot within it," Chen Xu explained.
"Breaking the fourth wall?" Yang Xin was still a little confused, but Ruan Ningxue seemed to understand.
"That's right." Chen Xu smiled and nodded.
As for Meta Games, Chen Xu had looked into them in Parallel World. Some forms of them had actually already appeared, but they had yet to become a coherent category.
They had also been used in novels, comics, and other mediums, but had likewise not become a distinct classification.
"Our next game will be a Meta Game. Its name will be 'Undertale.' I'll tell you more about it once we start work."
"Of course, besides 'Undertale,' we also need to develop a DLC character pack for 'Magic Mirror' and sell a little more while the hype has not faded."
Before you continue